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Sunday, January 05, 2014

It's Sunday night and Linda and I just had a relaxing dinner of pasta with chicken in a red sauce. We dined in our screen room with the fan circulating the air. Both of us agreed that we can make this work and all will be well.

Roll the tape back to Friday, January 3. Bill and Teri Burch's taxi arrived at exactly 2:00 PM. We helped them load up and waved good by. We had been re-loading the camper for the past two days and as soon as they turned the corner heading to the airport, we tossed the final items into the truck, hooked up the trailer and then drove to our next adventure at the lot that we rented.

Our bathroom is on the right.

We arrived and immediately unhooked the trailer and guided it, by hand, into the lot and to the location we felt was the best for it. I then backed up and turned the truck into the lot and aimed it into our projected camper spot. Two days prior we had drawn maps of the lot and talked about what direction we would need to face. Heading straight in was chosen as our best possibility.

The shower tent and camper in place.

I idled the truck and camper on to the area next to the palapa and we looked at the levels noting that it was more than 6 inches lower in the front then the back. I backed up and the truck immediately sank into the sand six inches! I stopped and shifted into four wheel drive. We looked it over and looked about the lot and found timbers that they had left over from the old palapa that had fallen down. I move the truck forward and we took four of of the boards and built a pad where my rear wheels would be. We also took three of them and made a pad for the front wheels. I drove forward and everything worked! The truck climbed up on the levelers and we were all set.

Bano!

Well not really. I had forgot about the slide and when we put it out we were too close to the palapa, we couldn't open it all the way!

Back into the truck and then things went back to bad. I moved the truck and in doing so I made more tracks in the sand. I was a bit frustrated and, try as I might, I could not get the truck up on the lifts. The levelers kept moving , or the truck couldn't find purchase and pull up on the platforms. Linda and I were beyond frazzled.

Screen tent with kitchen to the left.

Just when we were sitting under the palapa and deciding our future in the lot, two Mexican workers from next door came over with shovels and smiles to our rescue. With hand gestures and Spanish they said that they had been hearing the truck working to get up on the lifts. They immediately went to work building ramps and filling tire tracks and within about fifteen minutes we had our truck up and almost level. We were so happy and thankful that they were there. Linda hopped into the camper and came out with two cold beers and gave them to them. They left with big smiles. Linda and I looked at each other and laughed. I should have thought about building ramps, but by that point I was beyond thinking and just wanted to get the truck up and leveled. It was one of those moments where we just needed to stop and think things through and everything would have worked.

We have shade all day and no bugs at night!

Over the next two days we have been dealing with "Mexico" stuff. Our power to the camper keeps setting off the surge protector so that we can't use power in the camper. We have plenty of solar power for our batteries so that is not an intimidate problem. We have power around the palapa, so I believe that there is something amiss with the polarization of the power that keeps shutting down the surge protector. We have someone coming on Tuesday to test the plugs and see if I am right.

Our water is a bit erratic. Sometimes it flows, sometimes it doesn't. We were able to get the camper tank filled once so far, but we are starting to wonder if the water will flow sometime soon so we can fill it back up. We only use that water to shower and do dishes, our drinking water is purchased from vendors and comes in big bottles.

Linda found the sewer hookup and we have tested to make sure we can reach and dump our gray water. We use the toilet in the patio bathroom for most everything else.

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About Me

Born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho I am a rare breed, a true local, a native, Potato-head maximus. I am an avid river runner with about 30 years of experience. Linda, my lovely wife, and I run a 16 ft. cataraft and have worked hard to make this vessel our home as much as possible. The latest obsession we have launched into has to do with our new camper. It's a beautiful hotel on wheels and we love it.